LAWS8061 Environmental Planning Law - Final Assessment

FINAL ASSESSMENT

Part 1:
You are a lawyer at a planning law firm.

A client is seeking advice on a new development proposal.

The project is for the expansion of a coal mine in the Blue Mountains area of New South Wale called the Gorge Mine. The project is to produce coking coal and will use the technique of longwall mining.

The site is near the Newnes Plateau Cliffs. The relevant Local Environmental Plan is the Lithgow Environmental Plan 2014, and the local council is the Lithgow City Council. The Project is zoned RU1 and SP2.

The mine will have a capital investment value of $500 million and produce 3.6 million tonnes of coal over the next five years.

It is helpful to note that the expansion is wholly located within the applicant’s existing mining lease. Therefore, no new licenses are required for the project. In addition to the longwall mining the project will include the following activities that are relevant to this request for advice relating to mining infrastructure.

• Development of underground railroads to access the mining area
• Transport of coal via railroad to the coal preparation plant
• Delivery of product coal from the coal preparation plant to steelworks at Port Kembla for domestic use or the Port Kembla coal terminal for export

The client has requested that you assess the prospects of the project being assessed and approved under the relevant provisions of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) and all relevant planning law regulation.

Your advice should include - categorizing the project appropriately, explaining why it will be categorized that way; identify the relevant consent authority; provide an explanation of the correct legislative process regarding development assessment and approval (including all relevant EPIs) and how it applies to this project based upon the information you have, including public notification and environmental requirements all in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Act.

In addition, the client has listed a number of specific questions (you may respond to these separately or as part of the overall analysis of the project outlined above).

The client wants to know whether risks regarding particular environmental impacts and processes of change will be relevant to the legal requirements of the development application and assessment process. The issues in particular are climate change, biodiversity loss and bushfire and the relationship between the three.

Preliminary documentation provided by the client strongly suggests that:

• The potential environmental and ecological impacts of the mine are vast. Primarily the mine will impact water dependent ecosystems. Loss of water to these ecosystems will result in much drier conditions that will increase risks associated with bushfire.
• The project is predicted to generate approximately 1.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

You have been asked to explain how these environmental issues and changes could be relevant to the evaluation/assessment of the Project.

Further you have been asked to explain whether the Project will need to be assessed and approved under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) and if so, the relevant assessment process.